Written by Micaela Del Monte.
Having been elected to the European Parliament in June 2024, two members of the European Commission – Virginijus Sinkevičius (Lithuania) and Adina Vălean (Romania) – have resigned as commissioners in order to take up their seats. In this situation, the usual rule is that the vacancy must be filled by a new commissioner of the same nationality – unless the Council unanimously decides otherwise. On 15 July 2024, the day before the Parliament’s constitutive session, Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission President, announced that Executive Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič (Slovakia) would take over the duties of Sinkevicius, and Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra (the Netherlands) those of Valean.
Background
The College of Commissioners currently consists of one national per Member State. Any commissioner elected to the European Parliament who decides to take up their seat must resign, as the two offices are incompatible (Article 245 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and Article 7(1) of the Electoral Act). The EU Treaties require, as a general rule, that a vacancy caused by such a resignation be filled for the remainder of the Commission’s term of office by a new member of the same nationality, appointed by the Council. However, the Council may, acting unanimously, on a proposal from the President of the Commission, decide not to fill the vacancy ‘in particular when the remainder of the Member’s term of office is short’ (Article 246 TFEU). In this case, another commissioner might be required to take over the duties of the non-replaced commissioner in the interim.
After the 2014 elections, four members of the Commission took up seats in the European Parliament, and were replaced for the final months of their mandates. On that occasion, Parliament held hearings with the candidate replacements before voting on their appointment. More recently in July 2019, five members of the Juncker Commission were elected to Parliament and two of those decided to take up their seats: Andrus Ansip (Estonia) and Corina Creţu (Romania). President Juncker proposed not to replace them. He noted that, during the 4 remaining months, the Commission’s focus would be on completing pending proposals. Moreover, pointing to the financial burden entailed by such replacements, Juncker suggested that, given the practice of working in ‘project teams’, other commissioners would be ‘fully capable’ of stepping in for departing colleagues. However the Council could not agree unanimously on his proposal, and the procedure to replace the two commissioners was launched, with the Estonian and Romanian governments proposing candidates. In the end, however, the Council did not appoint new commissioners.
The 2024 European elections
Following the 2024 elections in June, four commissioners were elected to the European Parliament (Virginijus Sinkevičius, Commissioner for environment, oceans and fisheries; Valdis Dombrovskis – Latvia, Executive Vice-President responsible for an economy that works for people; Adina Vălean, responsible for transport; and Dubravka Šuica – Croatia, Vice-President responsible for democracy and demography). Sinkevičius and Vălean have joined the Parliament while Šuica and Dombrovskis have remained in office. In July 2024, before Parliament’s constitutive plenary session, Ursula von der Leyen announced that Šefčovič would take over the portfolio of Sinkevičius (environment and fisheries) while Hoekstra would take over Vălean’s portfolio (transport). On 24 July, following von der Leyen’s proposal, the Council formally and unanimously took the decision not to fill the vacancies caused by the resignation of Sinkevičius and Vălean.
This is an update of an ‘at-a-glance‘ note written in July 2019 by Laura Tilindyte.
Read this ‘at a glance’ note on ‘Replacement or otherwise of commissioners elected to the European Parliament‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.